(CNN)– A new video billboard in New York's Times Square has a message from creationists, "To all of our atheist friends: Thank God you're wrong."

The video advertisement at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan is one of several billboards going up this week in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, paid for by Answers in Genesis.

Answers in Genesis is best known as the multimillion-dollar Christian ministry behind the Creation Museum outside Cincinnati.

The museum presents the case for Young Earth creationism, following what it says is a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis, which says the Earth was created by God in six days less than 10,000 years ago.

Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, said the idea for the advertisements came from an atheist billboard in Times Square at Christmas.

During the holidays, the American Atheists put up a billboard with images of Santa Claus and Jesus that read: "Keep the Merry, dump the myth."

“The Bible says to contend for the faith,” Ham said. “We thought we should come up with something that would make a statement in the culture, a bold statement, and direct them to our website.

"We're not against them personally. We're not trying to attack them personally, but we do believe they're wrong," he said.

"From an atheist's perspective, they believe when they die, they cease to exist. And we say 'no, you're not going to cease to exist; you're going to spend eternity with God or without God. And if you're an atheist, you're going to be spending it without God.' "

"They refuse to look at the real world. They refuse to look at the evidence we have, and they offer none," Silverman said. "They might as well be saying, 'Thank Zeus you're wrong' or 'Thank Thor you're wrong.' "

Silverman said he welcomed another competitor to marketplace, noting that after atheists bought a billboard two years ago in Times Square that read "You KNOW it's a myth," the Catholic League purchased competing space at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel for a sign that read "You KNOW it's true."

"I would suggest, if they're actually trying to attract atheists, they should talk about proof and reason to believe in their god, not just some pithy play on words," Silverman said.

Ham says part of the goal of the campaign is to draw people to the website for Answers in Genesis, where he offers a lengthy post on his beliefs for the proof of God.

Ham insists that this campaign is in keeping with their overall mission. "We're a biblical authority ministry. We're really on about the Bible and the Gospel. Now, we do have a specialty in the area of the creation account and Genesis because that's where we say God's word has come under attack."

Ham said Answers in Genesis made the decision to split its marketing budget for the ministry between a regional campaign for the museum and this billboard campaign, rather than a national campaign.

IRS filings for the ministry in recent years have shown a yearly operating budget of more than $25 million. Ham said the marketing budget is about 2% of that, about $500,000 a year. Though they are waiting for all the bills to come due for this campaign, he said he expected it to cost between $150,000 and $200,000.

Silverman noted that his billboards were not video and cost approximately $25,000 last year. He said another campaign was in the works for this year.

"They're throwing down the gauntlet, and we're picking it up," Silverman said, adding that his group would "slap them in the face" with it.

Ham said that despite criticism from other Christians for being negative and the usual criticisms from secularists he received on his social media accounts, the advertisements have been a success.

"We wanted people talking about them, and we wanted discussion about this. We wanted people thinking about God," Ham said.

The Creation Museum and the theory of Young Earth creationism are widely reviled by the broader science community.

In a YouTube video posted last year titled "Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children," Bill Nye the Science Guy slammed creationism, imploring parents not to teach it to their children. "We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future," he said. "We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems."

For as long as Gallup has conducted the survey, creationism has remained far and away the most popular answer, with 40% to 47% of Americans surveyed saying they believed that God created humans in their present form at one point within the past 10,000 years.

The Creation Museum said it recently welcomed its 2 millionth visitor since its opening in 2007.

soundoff(8,748 Responses)

hopefully when I die, I get a chance to come back and prove that there is no god

October 15, 2013 at 5:56 pm |

Mike

In the absence of evidence, evolutionists must have tremendous faith in their belief system. It takes more faith to be an evolutionist!

October 15, 2013 at 5:09 pm |

Lisa

You've got that exactly backwards, Mike, and everyone knows it. You must just be projecting your own anxiety over placing all your confidence in nothing but blind faith.

October 16, 2013 at 8:10 am |

ME II

@Mike,
1) I don't know what an "evolutionist" is.
2) There is plenty of evidence supporting the scientific theory of evolution.

October 16, 2013 at 11:03 am |

Test

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October 15, 2013 at 2:31 pm |

Briggsky

Leviticus says I can sell my daughters into slavery if I am displeased. The bible also lays out the accepted forms of slavery. I can also call for stoning for various offensive behaviors. So we are expected to throw out all that science has already proven. It wasn't too long ago that bible teachers listed over 25 different proofs that the earth was flat. How did that work out? The bible thumpers party of choice just voted to cut 40 billion from the food stamp program. How can you blame them with the three largest groups using them were children, retirees and service members. Those greedy groups account for over 90% of food stamp users. Two thirds of the family users are headed by single women. If you can't beat them just starve them to death. Jesus said that he who helps the least of them, helps me. If the religious right would start there we could move back towards what made America great instead of hating and starving the poor.

October 15, 2013 at 2:08 pm |

prfreedom

Whoa! You're assuming the religious right might be willing to behave as Christians. No matter what they call themselves they clearly aren't followers of Christ's teachings.

It has been
suggested that much of Freud's early
psychoanalytical theory was a by-product of his
cocaine use.

October 15, 2013 at 9:07 am |

Richard Cranium

That should be of no surprise, it certainly would have had an effect, though to what extent will never be known. Freud was wrong on a lot of things, but he certainly did lead his science down some very interesting paths.

October 15, 2013 at 9:19 am |

Lisa

And, maybe, the Ten Commandments were the result of Moses inhaling the smoke from that burning bush? The Book of Revelation reads like the product of someone deeply into LSD. Perhaps a lot of such creative invention requires chemical help?

Well Lisa creativity induced by LSD? Interesting! I think u need to smoke the bush more often. It doesn't seem to work in such small doses. lol

October 15, 2013 at 10:28 am |

Lisa

I see that you didn't bother even trying to pull a Clinton with Moses and claim that he didn't "Inhale". 🙂

I picked LSD for John randomly; it could have been any hallucinogenic, but preferably one that draws out the kind of paranoia found in that book. Perhaps you prefer the Sybil cave gas theory? Either way, if such crazy stuff did not come from a genuinely crazy person, the he sure had a Hollywood level imagination to work with.

October 15, 2013 at 4:30 pm |

Anonymous

The atheists are proving that they are hateful, intolerant, and angry people by the comments they leave. Not to mention that most of the pictures above are atheists making fun of Christianity, not the other way around. You flock to Christian based articles in order to dump on them and tell Christians how stupid they supposedly are. Why? Do you have nothing better to do?

October 15, 2013 at 8:34 am |

mknoll

Please, there are literally hundreds of Christian radio stations in this country. Dozens of Christian Television stations and thousands of Proselytizing billboards. When Christians consider a single billboard to be "throwing down the gauntlet" it shows how against multi-culturalism they are and how frail their faith really is.

October 15, 2013 at 8:57 am |

mknoll

Should we be asking if all the door knockers and pamphlet distributors have anything better to do?
They're just expressing their deeply held convictions, right?

October 15, 2013 at 9:02 am |

Joey

Not all Christians are stupid, just Creationists.

October 15, 2013 at 11:44 am |

Lisa

Have you ever considered how much of a mockery to intelligence creationism is?

October 15, 2013 at 4:32 pm |

ME II

Limiting the spread of willful ignorance is enough of a reason to speak up any time silliness like Creationism is spoken of as serious topic.

I agree, the lies of creationists should be openly criticized for the harm their dishonesty does to the public's understanding of science and reality. A doctrine which is based in denial of scientific certainty-facts known to a degree of mathematical confidence, is a doctrine founded on lies.

October 16, 2013 at 1:04 pm |

Topher

I don't think Humans could dream up a dumber pastime than a belief in a god 😦

You said, "It sure would be nice if everyone would stop being raging a**-holes about other peoples' deeply held convictions."
Anyone who doesn't want their beliefs ridiculed has two options. The first, and by far the best, is to not have ridiculous beliefs. The second option is to not display ridiculous beliefs on a public forum.

Everyone is free to believe whatever nonsense they want, but they are not free to expect anyone to automatically respect that nonsense. Ridiculous beliefs should be ridiculed.

October 14, 2013 at 6:16 pm |

Maybe it's just me

I find ridiculous beliefs a lot more entertaining of a read than ridicule. A lot more creative too. It's like choosing between watching Lost and watching Jerry Springer.

You said, "I find ridiculous beliefs a lot more entertaining of a read than ridicule."
To each his, or her own.

You said, "A lot more creative too."
Sometimes. A lot of the ridiculous beliefs are rehashing the same indoctrination, over, and over again.

You said, "It's like choosing between watching Lost and watching Jerry Springer."
Lost. That seems to be a very apt for most of these ridiculous beliefs.

October 14, 2013 at 8:02 pm |

Skeptic

Atheism is not "a deeply held conviction". Just like not playing baseball is not a sport.

October 15, 2013 at 1:50 pm |

Family Christian Stores, Inc.

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October 14, 2013 at 4:30 pm |

Just wow

I'm calling the EPA to do a safe water test for Gaithersburg, MD.

October 14, 2013 at 7:44 pm |

Kind-Kind

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W763lQR0tU&w=640&h=360]

October 14, 2013 at 3:31 pm |

David S.

This is absolutely the most idiotic thing I have ever watched and IMHO you've done more FOR Evolution than Creationism by showing how stupid Creationists get in their beliefs. What, do you just not understand it? The video does not make one valid point, instead just blindly rips on evolution like we are all just SOOO dumb. I can only come to the conclusion that YOU are dumb. I know you'd like to simply "run away" and simply find some big nice god to answer everything for you, but the truth is that GODS & CREATORS evolve. In fact everything evolves! Meanwhile I try to find respect for religion only to see its most fanatical believers like you simply sticking your heads in the sand like ostriches and playing dumb. For what? Subservience for your diety? Obedience to your masters beliefs? CREATORS WERE CREATED. By WHO? * E * V * O * L * U * T * I * O * N - The REAL final word.

October 15, 2013 at 8:26 am |

Phipps

Don't know what it is that you smoking, but, Fish->Amphibian->Reptile->Mammal tale makes perfect sense! Wow! #Not!
I can say the same thing in a hundred more words to the intellectual bafflement of your "kind" but that won't change the order of the tale as told.

October 15, 2013 at 9:26 am |

DP

I’m religious and I totally believe in evolution.

October 14, 2013 at 3:27 pm |

Lisa

Then you must compartmentalize your faith away from your reason, because the two just don't jive together in a unified world view.

October 15, 2013 at 4:58 pm |

james

And I can appreciate Star Trek while also being a scientist, as long as I keep the fictional stuff out of my work.

October 15, 2013 at 5:01 pm |

BOb the Prairie Dog

NO ONE knows what happens when we die and ANYONE claiming such knowledge is a LIAR who probably wants your MONEY.

October 14, 2013 at 12:12 pm |

sam stone

Not necessarily, they could be just delusional

October 14, 2013 at 2:32 pm |

Lisa

Not quite. We die, our brain dies, and with that our personality and consciousness also dies. This is a logical deduction; all other ideas are pure speculation, often born out of the fantasy of being immortal.

October 15, 2013 at 5:05 pm |

Martin

I just find it odd. The point of Christianity is to love and help one another. I'm not exactly sure what a billboard does to put food into someones stomach, or a coat on someones back. Especially considering that atheists consist of something like 1% of the population. Watch out guys, we're such a threat to your religion. I guess the fundamental tenant of being a modern day christian is to completely ignore the teachings of your messiah.

October 14, 2013 at 10:06 am |

Bill Deacon

No, the point of Christianity to to be redeemed from your sins

October 14, 2013 at 12:12 pm |

HotAirAce

Well given that the notion of sin according to The Babble is 100% bullsh!t, it's obvious that there really is no point to the dead jew zombie vampire cannibal death cult aka christianity. . .

October 14, 2013 at 12:19 pm |

sam stone

No, Bill, the point of christianity is to convince people that they have "sins" for which they need to be redeemed. Looks like you are one of the suckers who bought into it

October 14, 2013 at 2:37 pm |

R.M. Goodswell

Greatest con ever was to convince people to enslave themselves and their offspring to the Church from first breath to last.

"only through his middlemen can ye be saved!"

Tell me Bill, how can the clergy have any better idea of what is in the mind of god than you, me or Jack at the bar down the street? None of us, now or ever in the history of our species have seen such a creature.

'Sin' is what ever happens to be in the RCC's best advantage to keep the masses cowed..

October 14, 2013 at 11:23 pm |

sam stone

I agree, but it not just the RCC

Jesus suckers of all stripes come on here to bloviate about sin

October 15, 2013 at 5:21 am |

Lisa

Bill
As suspected, the point of Christianity is a purely selfish one, yes?

October 15, 2013 at 4:53 pm |

*

* tenet, not tenant

October 14, 2013 at 1:35 pm |

Jake

It depends on context

October 15, 2013 at 12:25 am |

Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever

Unless the context is someone who rents property, the man's right. The word is "tenet" and not "tenant". Many people misuse a certain word their entire life thinking they know what it means because sometimes when they put it in a sentence it seems to fit.

October 15, 2013 at 8:09 pm |

Will

Hello all.

Before I begin, note that you can certainly choose not to give a morsel of f ck to me. I come to you from a philosophical point of view. I hope you can open your minds and not be offended by my opinion. (to the trolls)

I was a born again christian. Now I am an atheist. How did this happen? Let us assume God is real. This being is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Now, this creator with all His power and His claim of infinite love, what does He choose to do? He chooses to create some humans whom He KNOWS will NEVER choose to believe in Him. He made them that way, and He does not make mistakes. He knows full well, long before He created any of these people. That basically means He creates some people just to be damned in hell for eternity. Sure, He chose to give man free will. But He is all powerful. That means even while giving men free will, He can ensure specific conditions which will help all men eventually choose to believe in him before they are damned for eternity in hell. But He doesn't. He, while claiming great love for His creations, intentionally chooses to let a great many suffer for eternity in hell. I don't know about you, but even if I am convinced this God is real, I simply am not able to follow Him with the knowledge that He chooses to create some just so they will suffer eternally in hell. Even if He chooses to give me the opportunity to live in eternal bliss in heaven with Him, I simply cannot do that with the knowledge that there are other people, humans just like I am, suffering and will continue to suffer in hell. I would rather be damned to hell than to follow a God that would choose for this to happen. God made me this way.

Also, people claim Christianity is for the good because it teaches people to do good. Now, if you need someone to tell you "You're going to hell unless you follow God and do the good He says." to be able to choose to do good, you're not a good person at all. You're doing good simply because you fear eternal suffering and/or want to go to heaven and enjoy eternal bliss. In short, it's because you are selfish. I believe a truly good person does nice things simply because he wants to be nice. His decisions will never be affected by deterrence or incentives. And I don't need to believe there's a God watching what I'm doing 24/7 to choose to do good.

That would be meaningless.

October 14, 2013 at 3:51 am |

TrueBlue42

Very well written, Will. Thank you, from one Atheist to another.

October 14, 2013 at 6:36 am |

Youtube - Neil DeGrasse Tyson - The Perimeter of Ignorance

"You're doing good simply because you fear eternal suffering and/or want to go to heaven and enjoy eternal bliss. .... I believe a truly good person does nice things simply because he wants to be nice."

As a former Christian, that's the same idea that kept coming into my mind. The bigotries, racists remarks, and political nature of it all, especially in the elders, really told me something was very, very wrong.

October 14, 2013 at 9:02 am |

MArk

Your finite mind can't comprehend an infinite God. To try and speculate on his motive is futile. It would be like trying to have a pre-schooler explain quantum Physics. Keep an open mind. I was once an atheist and am now a believer.

October 14, 2013 at 7:05 am |

sam stone

"Your finite mind can't comprehend an infinite God"

But yours can?

October 14, 2013 at 7:44 am |

Will

Surely an omniscient and omnipotent god would be able to put it in a way I, or whoever else is curious, can understand. Otherwise, something this abstract will require blind faith. I cannot have blind faith in this "higher motive" that I cannot comprehend, much less agree with. If God exists, he made me so that I simply cannot follow blindly, without understanding reason. I mean, faith without reason was what caused so many unnecessary deaths in the dark ages; it can only help build disasters in this world of men. (Think of the possibilities with an army of blindly following followers. What has history shown us?) Also, unthinking followers are probably the last thing a God who chose to give men free will would want, right?

October 14, 2013 at 11:52 am |

Lisa

MArk
Then aren't you believers also working with equally finite minds? How do you know, then, that you understand this "unknowable" God's intentions? Maybe he's actually interested in harvesting your souls for shack food?

He's "unknowable", but it's interesting just how many people are dead certain that they know what he wants, which just so happens, coincidentally, to be exactly what they want.

If god is incomprehensible, and anything any human claims to understand about god could be wrong, what's the point in staking so much on religion? You might as well take Abraham Lincoln's approach: god created the universe, but is inscrutable, so live your life as a good person and don't worry about the doctrine. That internalizes your faith. Which is how people with different faiths (or none at all) prefer it. I don't care what you believe. None of my business. It's your actions that affect me.

October 16, 2013 at 9:15 am |

sam stone

how can free will co-exist with an omniscient god?

October 14, 2013 at 7:42 am |

Reality # 2

By taking god down a notch:

From Father Edward Schillebeeckx, the famous Catholic theologian, in his book, Church: The Human Story of God,
Crossroad, 1993, p.91 (softcover)

"Christians must give up a perverse, unhealthy and inhuman doctrine of predestination without in so doing making God the great scapegoat of history" .

"Nothing is determined in advance: in
nature there is chance and determinism; in the world of human activity there is possibility of free choices.

Therefore the historical future is not known even to God; otherwise we and our history would be merely a puppet show in which God holds the strings. For God, too, history is an adventure, an open history for and of men and women."

October 14, 2013 at 8:00 am |

Youtube - Neil DeGrasse Tyson - The Perimeter of Ignorance

... well, it's kind of open to women ... except as priests, we can't have that in the Church.

October 14, 2013 at 8:42 am |

sam stone

So, are you saying that god doesn't know the future?

October 14, 2013 at 2:43 pm |

Reality # 2

Obviously if there is a god, Schillebeeckx reasons that said god does not know the future as this would vitiate her/his gift of Free Will.

God is not obvious nor required for an explanation of anything that we observe in nature.

October 16, 2013 at 1:08 pm |

Albert

Christian ideas would work much better if the whole omniscient, omnipotent part were taken out of it. Still unbelievable, mind you, but somewhat more realistic.

October 14, 2013 at 10:18 am |

Felix

Agreed. Then some of the convoluted methods he uses to accomplish things would make at least a LITTLE more sense.

October 14, 2013 at 10:21 am |

George

Yeah, like apparently being restricted to telling only one person (prophet) all his rules and warnings and that person is supposed to convince everyone else that god spoke to him and told him what everyone needs to do. That's a fairly non-omnipotent and ineffective approach to the problem.

October 15, 2013 at 12:49 pm |

Bill Deacon

I call poe. your argument is nothing new. It's mainstream atheism, which any born again Christian has seen many times and for which there are ready answers. Not simple answers, but viable responses. If you ever were, in fact, a Christian you are either the most poorly discipled one I've encountered or lack the most conviction. I suspect that if atheism ever angers you the way Christianity has, you'll abandon it too for the next thing someone promises you

October 14, 2013 at 12:19 pm |

john

This person gave a terrific testimony, one it which more than one person with a similar response was moved to comment. Now I'm going to add myself to this ever-growing list.

Perhaps you should take us at our word and at least attempt to respond to our points rather than dream up whatever pitiful excuse eases you to bed at night.

October 14, 2013 at 1:06 pm |

Observer

Bill Deacon

"I call poe. your argument is nothing new. It's mainstream atheism, which any born again Christian has seen many times and for which there are ready answers. Not simple answers, but viable responses."

If there were such answers, you certainly didn't give any.

October 14, 2013 at 1:10 pm |

Webby

Bill Deacon,

You don't seem to know what a "poe" is:

"Poe's law is that a parody of something extreme by nature becomes impossible to differentiate from sincere extremism."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

You might not think that the poster was not a "True atheist", but that's not a "poe" - it would be more along the lines of "No True Scotsman", if anything.

October 14, 2013 at 1:14 pm |

Just the Facts Ma'am...

"I suspect that if atheism ever angers you the way Christianity has, you'll abandon it too "

How the heII can atheism anger someone? I can see how an atheist might anger someone, but atheism? Are you that shallow and thin skinned to get angry just because you found out there are people out there who do not believe in your brand of invisible fairy? And how would an atheist be angered by atheism? It has no doctrine or ideoogy, it is simply lacking a belief in god/gods.

October 14, 2013 at 1:47 pm |

sam stone

of course he is

October 14, 2013 at 2:54 pm |

sam stone

wow, bill, you are a true christian. perhaps, being as skilled as you are in the art of conveying god, you can answer a couple simple questions

1. how can an omniscient god and free will co-exist?

2. how is allowing someone else to take the punishment you feel you deserve an admirable moral stance?

October 14, 2013 at 2:52 pm |

sam stone

come on, billy, can you answer the questions?

if you can't, don't worry, your fellow pious folks have run from them too

i think cowardice is part and parcel of wanting someone else to take your punishment

October 14, 2013 at 5:20 pm |

Lisa

Bill
So, you believe that it takes "disciple" in order to maintain one's Christianity, eh? It must take a lot to suppress one's Common Sense unless, of course, you didn't have much to begin with.

October 15, 2013 at 4:44 pm |

Not an atheist

Hi Will. I am not an atheist, I think I'm a pantheist. I spend a lot of time trying to find a definition for God that will fit all of those criteria such as "existence" or consciousness. If I find some definition that works I'll share it and I look forward to proving atheism wrong one day....if I ever do, which I might never be able to do, but it's fun trying.
Welcome. 🙂

October 14, 2013 at 6:20 pm |

Lisa

By "finding a definition" you mean "invent" a God that matches your criteria, correct? Why not, it's what all believers do anyway.

October 15, 2013 at 4:39 pm |

Skeptic

Best response I have seen in a long time. THANK YOU

October 15, 2013 at 2:06 pm |

Lisa

Christianity doesn't teach people to do good; it only teaches people to follow orders. It's not a moral system, but a set of moral pronouncements. Inevitably, it failed because society moved on, and the old laws couldn't be forced to address modern issues.

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.